It is often difficult for Photoshop users to select human hair or animal fur when changing the background of a picture or photo. It is not always possible to cut thin strands of hair neatly, so many want to know how to achieve realism in this action. Let's look at two ways to achieve this realism when a person is photographed against a solid background, and when the background is varied.
Necessary
Adobe Photoshop
Instructions
Step 1
Select the hair in the photo with a solid background.
The most successful way out in this situation would be to use channels in Photoshop (Channels). First, open the photo you want to work with. Open the Channels section and in the window that appears, select in turn all the channel colors - red, green and blue. Determine in which selected color the person depicted in the photo will be the most contrasting with the background. The selected channel (for example, Blue Channel) must be duplicated (transferred to the New Channel icon).
Additionally, edit the Levels parameters on the new channel - increase the contrast of the image even more so that the difference between dark and light elements of the photo becomes even more noticeable. If after these actions dark spots appeared on the white background, lighten them manually using the Dodge tool.
Then use the Burn tools in the "shadow" mode and the Brush (brush) to darken the image to the blackest possible shade, first automatically, and then manually finalizing. After that, invert the image (Ctrl + Shift + I) - this will swap the places of the white and black colors.
Load the selection while holding down the Ctrl key, click the Channel icon, and then make all the hidden channels of the image visible. Copy the selection and paste it on a new layer. After that, turn off the visibility of the original image to turn off the background. You will see that the object shown in the photo has been cut out neatly and beautifully. Now you can paste the selected and edited object onto any other background - adjusting the brightness and contrast as you see fit.
Step 2
A more complex method of isolating hair in a photo may seem to be a technique for working with a photograph, where the background is not uniform.
Since on a varied background (for example, in nature), some sections of the hair merge with dark objects around the person depicted, using channels is unlikely to help. First, take the Pen Tool and cut out the human shape along with the hair using clear, straight lines. Copy the selected area to a new layer with the Feather parameter of 2 pixels - this will smooth out sharp corners and rough places in the selection. Make the background of the photo remaining on the original layer semi-transparent (Opacity 50%).
In your field of vision, there are barely visible parts of the hair that remain outside the main selection. Based on them, start drawing the hairstyle of the person in the photo using the Smudge tool. Set different line weights to create the illusion of volume and realistic texture of the hairstyle. Finish painting with the thinnest brush - no more than 2 pixels. After that, the photo can be safely placed on any other background, it is ready.
